Chapter 177: Fumble

“I am defeateeed!” The stone golem with an unconscious fae jutting out of the top of its head cried in its rumbling voice, slowly – and dramatically – sinking into the ground, leaving behind the unconscious body of the last of the four gate guardians.

Will and Travis shared a glance and shrugged before they stepped around the fae and continued on their way, arriving at a massive, ornate double door decorated with the bones of heroes who had come this far.

There was an actual sign that said so.

I wonder if this guy would be interested in owning a theater and doing horror-themed shows? Will wondered to himself as he kicked the door open. In person, it all seemed a little overdone, but Will supposed it was like how actors caked themselves in makeup, so that people could make out their features from a distance.

After a bit of considering, Will figured Mordaine would want his guests to show a little bravado at this juncture, so he kicked the double doors open and strode inside with confidence, squinting at the miasmatic glow.

The throneroom was built around the Key site.

In Will’s experience, Key sites were rather large, at least 100 feet tall from base to the tip, which meant that Mordaine must’ve built up around the key site until only the last five feet jutted up out of the floor of his castle.

Stairs had been carved into the volcanic stone leading up to the flat surface that blasted Miasma straight up into the sky, and in the center was a throne seemingly crafted entirely of bones.

Will was willing to bet that it was wood or perhaps steel rod with bones layered outside. Bone wasn’t a great material for making furniture.

On the throne was a man wearing rich black clothes with crimson red lining.

Will’s gaze landed on Mordaine and The System began whispering in his ear.

Tarnish of the Mind.

Without supervision, the caretakers of this Floor have grown beyond their original purpose, engaging in a macabre mimicry of their former masters, hoarding power while choking off the flow of Miasma to higher Floors. Cull any showing aberrant behavior and drive the rest away from the Key Site.

Will shook that statement away. He wasn’t interested in combat right this instant, but he did take note that the System message seemed to confirm his suspicion that the fae were an engineered race of caretakers rather than humans who had adapted to Debt.

“Is The System telling you to kill me?” Mordaine asked, his soft baritone filtered down to Will and Travis as if he were standing right beside them. The Fae Lord was resting his head on his palm, slouched in his chair with calculated ease.

“I’m sure you get that a lot,” Will said, slipping his tomahawk into his belt.

“It is the natural order of things. Immortality preserves the body but rots the mind. I too, will one day need to be put down like a diseased animal.”

“I suppose?” Will said, clearing his throat.

“Now prepare yourself,” Mordaine said, rising to his feet. “Because you face-“

“-I would like to extend the Fae Lord Mordaine an invitation to spectate as I kill the Fae Lord Kincaid, tomorrow at noon.” Will interrupted, risking the Debt in order to forestall another fight.

The fae lord frowned, head cocked.

“Wait, what?” The fae asked. “That’s what you’re here for? An invitation?”

“Yep.”

“You could’ve sent a letter, or Abyss, you could’ve told Gerald.”

“Is that the black gate guardian?” Will asked.

“Yeah.”

Will and Travis shared a glance.

“…We told him.”

“GERALD!” Mordaine shouted, leaving the beam of Miasma and stalking down the volcanic stairs, taking a sharp left turn at the bottom and ducking into a side door.

Will and Travis waited awkwardly as there was some faint shouting and a few cries of pain before Mordaine came back in with a beefy fae caught by the ear. From the bandage over his neck and the dark armor from the waist down, Will could tell it was the black gate guardian.

“Did these gentlemen tell you they were here to deliver a message!?” Mordaine demanded, pointing at Will and Travis with the hand that wasn’t gripping the lunk’s ear.

“…Yes.” the fae admitted quietly.

“You told us they attacked you!”

“They did!” Gerald whined.

“After he attacked us.” Will clarified.

“GERALD! How many times have I specifically told you to let messengers through!?”

“But they’re not dressed like messengers.” Gerald said, wincing. “I thought they were trying to take advantage of our good nature to deceive you, father.”

Are all four guardians Mordaine’s children? Even the giant spider? Will wondered.

“Bah, get back to your rest,” Mordaine let go of his son’s ear and kicked the oversized boy back through the door, climbing back up to his throne in a huff.

“We thought you were here as Climbers, not messengers.” Mordaine said once he settled back into his chair, tapping his fingers on his cheek as he studied them.

“You intend to kill Kincaid, huh?”

“Yessir.” Will said.

“Were any of my guardians particularly difficult for you to defeat?”

Will shook his head.

“Hmm…Alright. Yes, I’d like to see that overripe cancerous fungus taken down a peg or two. At the very least it’ll be entertaining. I’ll be there.”

Will bowed and Travis followed suit.

“Then we will be on our way-“

“IF!” Mordaine continued, his face splitting into a manic grin as he raised a single taloned finger. “You can escape from the labyrinth of bones!”

A trap door opened beneath them…but Will and Travis continued standing in midair as Will locked the terrain in place beneath his feet.

Will narrowed his eyes as a wisp of frustration bubbled up into his chest.

Given how much power the cannonballs have, each shot should destroy a support pillar and large chunks of the wall beyond it. I could probably reduce Mordaine’s prized castle to rubble in about fifteen seconds.

Carve it away from the key site piece by piece. Cannonball-sized chunk by chunk.

Drawing on Bakton’s lessons, Will made it perfectly clear what he intended to do, leading Mordaine’s attention with his calculated gaze contemplating the pillars supporting the roof as Will placed himself appropriately, picturing himself dodging a collapsing ceiling so accurately that Mordaine could see it too.

“I mean…” Mordaine’s smile dimmed as he read Will’s intent. “Thank you for the invitation. You’re free to go.”

Will thought he faintly heard Cassandra’s laughter through several feet of stone, and he let out the acidic breath of anger that he’d been holding onto.

“Then we’ll be leaving.” Will said, turning on his heel and marching back out.

“You didn’t kill the spider, did you?” Will asked as they made their way out.

“What? No.”

“Good. It was probably the ugly child,” Will said as they left.

Once they were out of the castle, they flew home at the relaxed pace of Travis’s flying carpet.

Sure, Will could go faster, but it wasn’t exactly pleasant.

Got done what I needed to get done, Will thought as he carried himself back home.

‘Home’ in his mind had begun to seem like the caravan…or rather anywhere Loth was around to challenge his mind, Anna to make his bed, Bee to steal his socks.

Will arrived back at the caravan without fanfare or incident, alighting on the ground and grabbing himself some stew, sitting down and observing Loth, who had her insects standing in a grid and was flicking her wrist at them, her focus sharp as a blade.

Wonder what she’s practicing? Will mused, shoving the spoon in his mouth, his body beginning to relax after a day of life-or-death battle.

Got another one coming in about fourteen hours, Will thought. He was going to be exterminating Kincaid and his entire lineage, putting them on Death’s Ground.

Will didn’t try to kill the other two fae lords because while they killed Climbers, by the standards of the 9th Floor, they were tolerable. And also, because an enemy who must fight or die will fight with everything they have.

It was a concept that he had learned from Loth, when they were discussing something she called ‘grand strategy’. Leave your enemy an out, and they will take it, but subject them to total annihilation, and they will fight with determination that far outweighs your own, making what should’ve been an easy fight into a decades-long slog that might just break you.

According to Arkesh the Mind-conquerer, many empires throughout the Tower had broken themselves against poor, under-equipped barbarians, simply because the barbarians fought with everything they had, while the soft soldiers of the empire did not.

Will’s fights had, up until this point, usually had this factor in his favor. He had always been the underdog, his biggest advantage his motivation to survive.

Tomorrow’s battle…that was not the case. He was deliberately putting his enemy on Death’s Ground.

Will had finally begun to see the gulf between himself and an average Climber, and going forward, that would be magnified even further. Especially after tomorrow.

The era of being the underdog is over. I only hope I can navigate the world as one with strength.

‘Some people never could make that transition’, Reese had said when Will had asked about what Lordship entailed. According to him, some couldn’t handle the Transition from weak to strong. From a nameless Climber to a Lord.

From someone who lived on Death’s Ground, to the one who put others on it.

They retained the attitudes of their former life and clutched for every scrap of power they possibly could, like a good Climber would, and that eventually doomed them and the people who followed them.

Will already had personally experienced exactly what Reese meant by that.

Frederick Wyrd.

The Thorns-build Lord had manically acquired power to satisfy an unquenchable desire to protect himself, just like a good Climber would…but at a certain point, the only way to get more power was to tear others down.

A perfect example of what not to do.

At a certain point, Will had to delegate, give others power instead of retaining it all for himself.

Just as he thought that, Travis put a paper that said ‘I.O.U 1 powerful relic’ under Will’s nose, along with a pen.

Chuckling, Will signed it. the Debt was already there between them, but Travis presumably wanted it in writing in case that wasn’t enough when they weren’t on the 9th Floor.

“Whatcha doin?” Will asked Loth when Travis had left.

“Working on a cantrip,” she said, flicking her wrist. Will felt the tiny pulse of Charge almost leave her hand before rapidly withdrawing back into her.

That sudden motion caused ripples to propagate through the miasmatic atmosphere and those ripples struck one of the insects in the grid, which proceeded to twitch violently.

“What’s it do?” Will asked.

“I call it Fumble,” Loth said, turning her emerald eyes to him. “Care to be my training dummy?”

“Sure. Whaddya need?”

“Just brandish your weapon.”

Will plucked his tomahawk out of his belt and aimed it at Loth threateningly.

Loth flicked her wrist and Will felt the pulse shoot out and land on his hand. A twitchy tingle shot up his arm like he’d fallen asleep on it and cut off the bloodflow.

Loth stepped forward and slapped the tomahawk, and it tumbled from his tingling fingers.

“Ah, I see why you call it Fumble,” Will shook the tingling out of his hand. It only took a couple seconds, but those seconds could easily turn a fight. He could see that happening with any limb she chose suddenly betraying him mid-fight.

“How’s it work?” Will asked.

“Part of my Primary Ability allows me to control my insects,” Loth said. “I leverage this aspect of my Ability to send a small, undirected signal into my opponent, telling their body to do everything at once, scrambling their normal rhythm.”

“…We’re not your insects.” Will said.

“My Ability doesn’t know that.” Loth said with a wink. Somehow she had bypassed a natural limitation on her Ability and made a damn decent cantrip out of it. It did ask a pretty important question, though…

“…Loth, do you know that we’re not your insects?” Will asked.

“…Shut up and just- be impressed.” Loth said, crossing her arms with a huff. Will couldn’t help but notice that she avoided answering the question.

Will glanced around to make sure there weren’t any other Kobolds around before he patted Loth’s head.

“I am very impressed…But tomorrow I’m gonna show you a cantrip that’ll turn those scales…green…”

Will’s jaw dropped as he realized that he’d forgotten to pick a new Secondary Ability in the middle of everything else.

“Just remember your level 40 Secondary?” Loth asked, leaning into his palm.

“…” Will tried to lie, but inside the Keep, that was impossible.

“You don’t know everything about me.” Will said, crossing his arms in a huff.